A funding rate is a payment rule attached to a perpetual contract. The displayed percentage is only one input. Before you can tell whether a position pays or receives, or compare one market with another, you need the sign convention, settlement interval, position snapshot, notional basis and actual settled rate.
That distinction matters because a rate is quoted per settlement interval. “0.01%” without a venue and interval is incomplete. It might be a rate assessed hourly, every four hours or on a different schedule. Do not multiply a headline rate by a guessed number of hours.
Start with the contract’s rule
Funding is generally transferred between long and short holders under each venue’s perpetual-market rules. A rate’s sign is meaningful only after you read that market’s published payer rule. Keep the raw source value and field definition before converting it to a cash flow.
Two current venue documents illustrate why the interval belongs beside the rate:
| Venue documentation checked 27 September 2026 UTC | Published settlement description | What to record |
|---|---|---|
| Hyperliquid | Funding is paid hourly; its documented rate calculation and hourly payment rules are venue-specific. | Rate for the event, UTC settlement time, position size, and oracle price used in its payment conversion. |
| Binance USDⓈ-M Futures API | The public API exposes symbol-specific funding-rate history; use the instrument’s current documentation to interpret its timestamp, units and contract convention. | Exact symbol, event timestamp, raw rate field, contract type and account record. |
These are examples from two providers, not a complete exchange comparison. A venue-wide page may describe a default while a particular contract follows another schedule. Binance publishes market endpoints for its USDⓈ-M Futures API; verify the exact symbol and current event record rather than assuming an interval or formula. The Hyperliquid funding documentation and Binance API records support the venue-scoped examples above.
Read the sign, then calculate one event
For Hyperliquid’s standard perpetuals, a positive funding rate means longs pay shorts; a negative rate reverses the payer. Its documented payment uses position size, oracle price and the rate. Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 markets use a different, more responsive premium calculation, so do not apply the standard rate-generation description to them. Binance publishes its own funding history and contract data; do not assume the Hyperliquid cash-flow shorthand uses the same price field, sign or contract conversion. Check the exact market documentation before calculating a venue-specific amount.
For a simplified linear position where positive rates mean a long pays, the cash flow to the long can be written:
long cash flow = −event notional × settled rate
Here the rate is a decimal for that settlement: positive 0.01% is 0.0001. This shorthand does not replace an inverse contract formula, multiplier, venue rounding rule, or the API’s documented sign. For a short under the same convention, reverse the sign.
Suppose a hypothetical eligible position has $1,000 of notional at one settled rate of +0.01%. The simplified amount is $1,000 × 0.0001 = $0.10: the long pays about ten cents and the short receives about ten cents, before venue precision and settlement details. This is arithmetic from an invented input, not a quoted current rate.
Add settled events instead of extending one quote
The next invented example follows a long position through four events. Each rate is per event, and notional is recorded at that event. A positive cash flow goes to the long; a negative value is paid by the long.
| Event | Event notional | Settled rate | Cash flow to long |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | $1,000 | +0.01% | −$0.1000 |
| B | $1,000 | −0.02% | +$0.2000 |
| C | $950 | +0.005% | −$0.0475 |
| D | $1,020 | +0.01% | −$0.1020 |
| Total | — | four different events | −$0.0495 |
Under these stated assumptions, the long pays a net 4.95 cents across the four events. The notional changes because the example says it does; it is not compounded account equity. A real account record should use the exact instrument size and venue conversion price at each eligible funding event. The result can be small because the assumed notional and rates are small. Do not silently scale it into a forecast.
This event-by-event method handles rate reversals. A long that pays at one settlement can receive at another. Multiplying one rate by “hours held” misses sign changes, a changed interval or a notional that moved with price or position size.
Know whether the position qualified
An estimate before settlement is not the same as a posted account payment. Record whether the position was open at the venue’s specified snapshot and whether the ledger shows an actual debit or credit. Read the current contract’s event timestamp and account settlement record rather than assuming all providers use the same snapshot timing. Hyperliquid documents its own hourly convention. Neither example establishes a universal snapshot rule.
When researching history, keep these fields together for each event:
- Venue, market, contract type, account or margin mode, and position direction.
- Funding event timestamp in UTC and the rate’s interval and units.
- Raw source value and source field definition, without changing its sign.
- Position size, contract multiplier, valuation price type and event notional.
- Whether the position was eligible and whether a settlement is confirmed, absent or unknown.
- Account-reported payment and the source URL, retrieval time and data coverage.
An hourly price candle is not a funding event. A missing or delayed observation is unknown, not zero. Write zero only when the relevant record establishes that no payment occurred. Reconcile modeled amounts against account settlement records when available; the event-rate history alone does not prove what a particular account paid.
Treat funding as one cost or cash flow
A favorable funding payment does not prove that a hedged or directional trade made money. Price movement, spot-perpetual basis, fees, spread, slippage, borrow or inventory costs, collateral and liquidation risk remain separate. A funding comparison needs a defined entry, holding window, hedge ratio, instrument pair, executable fills, event schedule, exit rule and stress case.
Use the fees and funding calculator for a deliberately simple fixed-notional estimate. It repeats the rate entered for each assumed interval; it does not fetch venue rates or model changing size. For actual or backtested event records, the perpetual funding settlement audit worksheet preserves the source field, event time, eligibility and account-reported cash flow separately.
SuperQuant’s local workspace can study imported rates under its stated demo-data model. It does not fetch or verify a live venue funding rule for an exchange order. Funding can change or reverse, and no payment schedule guarantees convergence at a particular time or price. Educational material only.